Human Trafficking Conference

FIRST ANNUAL
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON
HUMAN TRAFFICKING

October 29-31, 2009

"WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW"

General Information and Purpose Who Should Attend Conference Format Conference Speakers Call for Papers & Posters Conference Agenda

Conference Location & Transportation Registration and Fee Information Frequently Asked Questions Contact Information

Registration for First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking is now live - Register Now

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General Information and Purpose

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is proud to host The First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking. This conference is made possible through the interdisciplinary collaboration of the College of Business Administration, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Journalism, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries and the Department of Academic Conferences.
For more information on the UNL Human Trafficking Team please download the UNL Human Trafficking Team attachment.

General Information

Please bookmark this page and return for further updates on the First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: "What We Know and What We Need To Know."

Purpose

The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers from many disciplines, as well as government and non-governmental agencies who have responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts, to develop a research agenda.

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Who Should Attend

The First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking - "What We Know and What We Need to Know In Human Trafficking" is an intense and interactive conference formatted for those who have research results or ideas, or an interest in studying human trafficking. This conference will bring together:

• Other researchers nationally and internationally, engaged in anti-trafficking effort
• People who are "on the ground" in combating human trafficking
• People who see the effects of trafficking in their work
• Scholars with an interest in providing knowledge and methodologies to study the problems surrounding human trafficking
• Government agencies and others who fund anti-trafficking efforts
• People who will fund knowledge-creation, evaluation, and methodology-creation work

Conference Agenda

Download the Conference Agenda in PDF format.

Conference Format

The conference format is designed to provide maximum impute through exceptional and timely research for an opportunity of professional and significance discussion by those involved in the many facets of addressing Human Trafficking.
WHAT WE KNOW
Researchers will present their work in human trafficking, and government and NGO officials will present the facts, stories, and systematic knowledge about human trafficking within their areas of responsibility.
(Friday Morning, October 30)
WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
Government and NGO officials and researchers will describe the gaps in their knowledge of how human trafficking works, its effects, its extent, the value of anti-trafficking efforts, etc., and describe the problems they face in their work.
(Friday Afternoon, October 30)
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
After break-out sessions to collaboratively define research agendas and discuss funding opportunities in various areas of human trafficking, the conference will convene in a final discussion to suggest fruitful future directions.
(Saturday Morning, October 31)
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Conference Speakers

Please return to this site for updates on conference speakers.

Dr. Kevin Bales

Dr. Bales is one of the world's leading experts on modern slavery and child trafficking. He is President the of Free the Slaves, the US Sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world's oldest human rights organization). Bales have degrees in sociology, anthropology, and economic history from British and American universities. He is the author of "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy," which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is the winner of numerous international humanitarian awards a documentary based on his work, "Slavery: A Global Investigation," won the Peabody Award for 2000 and two Emmy Awards in 2002. Dr. Bales recently edited an Anti-Human Trafficking Toolkit for the United Nations, and published, with the Human Rights Center at Berkeley, a report on forced labor in the USA. Bales is a Trustee of Anti-Slavery International and was a consultant to the United Nations Global Program on Trafficking of Human Beings. He has been invited to advise the US, British, Irish, Norwegian, and Nepali governments, as well as the governments of the Economic Community of West African States, on the formulation of policy on slavery and human trafficking. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Cocoa Initiative
Download Dr. Kevin Bales' bio in PDF

Laura J. Lederer

Laura J. Lederer received her B.A. magna cum laudein comparative religions from the University of Michigan. After 10 years in philanthropy as director of community and social concerns at a private foundation, she continued her education at the University of San Francisco Law School and DePaul College of Law and received her jurisdoctorate in June 1999.
Lederer founded and directed The Protection Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997. In 2000, she moved The Protection Project to Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law Center, where she has taught for six years, including the first full course on international trafficking in persons offered at a law school. She is the editor of Take Back the Night, published in 1980 by William and Morrow (hardcover) and Bantam Books (paperback), and The Price We Pay: The Case Against Racist Speech, Hate Propaganda, and Pornography, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1995, and the author of numerous articles on trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.
She is currently Vice President for Policy and Planning for Global Centurion, a new NGO dedicated to fighting child sex trafficking.
Download Laura J. Lederer's bio in PDF

Dr. Leslie R. Wolfe

Dr. Leslie R. Wolfe is President of the Center for Women Policy Studies, the Nation's first feminist policy institute, founded in 1972. The Center's mission today is what it was at its founding -to improve women's lives and ensure women's human rights through enlightened public policy. A hallmark of the Center's work is the multiethnic feminist lens through which we view all issues affecting women and girls. The Center's Contract With Women of the USA® sets out 12 key principles for women's human rights and equality, derived from the 1995UN Platform for Action adopted in Beijing. With its national network of women state legislators in all 50 states, the Center works to transform these principles into public policy. See www.centerwomenpolicy.orgfor more about the Center's signature programs).
Before joining the Center in 1987, Dr. Wolfe served as: Director of the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Program in the U.S. Department of Education; Director of the Project on Equal Education Rights (PEER); Deputy Director of the Women's Rights Program at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Education in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Dr. Wolfe has served on the Boards of Directors of Women's Policy, Inc., the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM, the National Council for Research on Women, the Montgomery County, MD Commission on Women, the Board of Trustees of Montgomery Community College (Montgomery County, MD), and the Policy Advisory Board of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund; she also has served as chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.
Download Dr. Leslie R. Wolfe's bio in PDF